Dozens Killed in Tajikistan Battle

Government Attacks Onetime Islamist Stronghold, Targeting a Border Official It Accuses of Smuggling

By

Yaroslav Trofimov

Updated July 24, 2012 4:54 p.m. ET

KABUL—Heavy fighting erupted in the Tajikistan city of Khorog after central government forces confronted local commanders, with dozens of people reported dead in some of the worst violence in the former Soviet republic since its civil war ended in 1997.

The capital of Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region, Khorog sits along a river that marks the country's border with Afghanistan. Populated by the Pamiri ethnic minority, the...